Chimaev came under fire for exhibiting arrogant behavior in the fall out from UFC 279 weight miss. The Swedish star had been less than enthused about acknowledging own shortcomings and instead opted to flip off the media.
“There are no Muslims around him and this is very bad. Because if you are a Muslim, you need good, strong people around you.”
“When you become famous and rich, when you gain power and there are no people who will give advice or you do not listen to them, then something will happen. You need good people, even if you don’t like it, you need them.”
This wasn’t well received by the Chimaev team for the most part.
“I seen Khabib, sort of like saying, ‘Khamzat doesn’t have good people around him.’,” Till told ESPN MMA. “Now, I get it, I get like the Muslim faith. I’ve got some very close Muslim friends here in Liverpool and abroad or in Dubai. I just don’t like him saying, I don’t know if he’s directing at me or someone within Khamzat’s team, like coaches, teammates or whatever.
“There’s a few of us who aren’t Muslim. Now, I don’t like it because, one, I’ve only got Khamzat’s best interests. When Khamzat posted that meme saying [missing weight] was my fault, there was no problem. Direct all the blame on me I don’t care if it makes stuff easier for you.”
But Chimaev’s Muslim teammate Reza Madadi took umbrage and penned a long open letter – and to the surprise of everyone got acknowledged by Nurmagomedov.
